New Lower Ball Joints Corrected Steering Slop and Wheel Bounce

brian2sun

brian2sun

Elite Member
We've all seen a hundred threads about replacing your steering rack bushings to get rid of slop in the steering and give it a more stable feel. A lot of other threads say to replace you inner and outer tie rods to try to get the same stability. I followed the advice and replaced all that stuff this year and saw a very minimal change in vehicle stability. I did nothing for my recovery after hitting a big bump or a pothole and still felt not nearly as solid as it used to be. I was resigned to thinking if you lift a 3rd gen, the handling will go to crap and there's not much you can do to get it to feel stable like it used to when it was stock.

If your rack and/or tie rods have excessive movement in them like mine did, then they should definitely be replaced. But even though I have no play now, it still felt just as unstable as before. Then I finally got around to replacing my lower ball joints this weekend (which were less than a year old and already on the verge of breaking and killing me because Moog makes sh!t quality parts). I went with Napa lifetime warrany LBJs and the bottom line is this...

Replacing the lower ball joints with good quality parts did 10xs more for my stability than my rack bushings and tie rods combined. It immediately recovers after hitting a pothole now and I just wanted to share it.
 
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brian2sun said:
Replacing the lower ball joints with good quality parts did 10xs more for my stability than my rack bushings and tie rods combined. It immediately recovers after hitting a pothole now and I just wanted to share it.
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are these the pressed in ones? or the other ones you can R&R yourself?
i'm on the verge of dropping 1K to replace all of my steering components after my lift as well (tie rods have to be done) but if this did more for then messing with bushings and all of the other things on the front end i'm tempted to start here then work my way in toward the steering rack, i know what you're saying the rebound is crap and feels pretty squirrely most of the time, i'm not happy at all,
how hard of a job time and over all cost?

you rock man, thanks for throwing this out there, it may save me some $$$ in the end
 
I had a bit of a steering issue being that it was making a clunking sound when turned, I began to think it could be the steering rack bushing, idk, but now it's gone..and has me baffled. I'm not sure what having a steering play feels like. At least you have the first-hand experience on this issue and gracious enough to share on how to resolve it. Thanks!!!!

Is it imperative to also do a wheel alignment after a LBJ replacement? I know that once you mess with steering, you gotta account for it's alignment, too.:cheers:
 
theizzardking said:
are these the pressed in ones? or the other ones you can R&R yourself? i'm on the verge of dropping 1K to replace all of my steering components after my lift as well (tie rods have to be done) but if this did more for then messing with bushings and all of the other things on the front end i'm tempted to start here then work my way in toward the steering rack, i know what you're saying the rebound is crap and feels pretty squirrely most of the time, i'm not happy at all,
how hard of a job time and over all cost?

you rock man, thanks for throwing this out there, it may save me some $$$ in the end
Click to expand...

The uppers require pressing but the lowers are a piece of cake and took less than an hour for both sides. You need a tie rod puller or just back off the castle nut and whack it with a BFH to separate the tie rods from the LBJs without damaging it (don't use a pickle fork on anything that you intend to still use because it will destroy the rubber boot). But you'll need a pickle fork to pry the old ball out but who cares about destroying the old one. I got a pickle fork for $11 and the LBJs were $75.59 each + tax from Napa w/ lifetime warranty. They are normally $83.99 but if you have AAA you get a 10% discount at Napa. You can rent a tie rod puller from most parts houses but I used my buddy Jason's (j-money$$$).

I think I would definitely start with the LBJs since it made 95%+ of the difference that I could feel.. and they are the most dangerous if they fail as they will let the hub disonnect and cause you to loose control and crash.

blcktpgsr said:
I had a bit of a steering issue being that it was making a clunking sound when turned, I began to think it could be the steering rack bushing, idk, but now it's gone..and has me baffled. I'm not sure what having a steering play feels like. At least you have the first-hand experience on this issue and gracious enough to share on how to resolve it. Thanks!!!!

Is it imperative to also do a wheel alignment after a LBJ replacement? I know that once you mess with steering, you gotta account for it's alignment, too.:cheers:
Click to expand...

I have been told by a few shops that an alignment is required after doing LBJs, but I think it's BS personally. Tie rods, yes. BJs, I don't think so.
 
I did both upper and lower ball joints this weekend. Now my steering wheel is not strait. I need an alignment but I think that my ballpoints were bad at my last alignment. Before the last alignment my wheel was offset to the left, now it is offset to the right. But my truck is much tighter in the front. I also changed the steering rack, and tie rods this summer. Ball joints tightened everything up.:biggrin2:
 
I think doing both uppers and lowers definitely warrants an alignment, but lowers don't seem to change much steering-wise at least in my experience. My steering wheel stayed the same. They make a big difference huh?
 
To the OP, I know this thread is getting old but I wanted to know how your NAPA ball joints are holding up after nearly a year with them on? The main question I want to ask is where did you get your inner and outer tie rods? And how are they holding up with your lift as well?

I've seen so many mixed opinions about OEM vs. non oem, like napa, moog, and beck arnley.....:bash:....I just want to chose what's right.
 
I did mine lbj's 2 weeks ago with the napa premiums, so far so good, I'm satisfied with the build quality. Lifetime warranty adds icing to the cake. Hopefully Brian chimes in with his update.
 
I just finished doing my lbj's, tie rods, steering rack bushings, wheel bearings and cv's and it feels like a new truck. The steering wheel doesnt bounce out of my hand or even move when hitting bumps and pot holes like it did before it the truck feels more stable overall. Oh and i used the tacoma ball joints and outer tie rods and they have way more meat on them then the 4runner parts and i was able to get the alignment perfect on it. So glad i did all of it, well worth the time and money spent. I used all toyota parts on it as well.
 
madbomber08 said:
To the OP, I know this thread is getting old but I wanted to know how your NAPA ball joints are holding up after nearly a year with them on? The main question I want to ask is where did you get your inner and outer tie rods? And how are they holding up with your lift as well?

I've seen so many mixed opinions about OEM vs. non oem, like napa, moog, and beck arnley.....:bash:....I just want to chose what's right.
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WHORERUNNER said:
I did mine lbj's 2 weeks ago with the napa premiums, so far so good, I'm satisfied with the build quality. Lifetime warranty adds icing to the cake. Hopefully Brian chimes in with his update.
Click to expand...

My Napas seem to be holding up well after a year. My plan is to just replace them every 2-3 years under the warranty. My inner TREs were a lot cheaper at Autozone ($29.99 ea.) than Napa, so I went with those and they have a lifetime warranty too. I just replaced them a couple weeks ago so I can't comment on their quality yet, but they were a lot tighter than the old ones I took out. My outer TREs are Beck Arnley and I think and I got them off the internet somewhere. I did those maybe 1.5 years ago. They seem to be holding up fine too. Every one of those parts, regardless of who made them and where I bought them from says "555" on it (as do all the OEM parts I took out).

I also replaced my steering rack bushings I'd say about 1.5 years ago. And I did my steering rack guide last week and then I got it aligned. Now my steering finally feels nice and I have no steering wheel shake on the freeway and no bouncing/bad recovery after bumps at all anymore. I think each part I replaced helped the handling a little, but it took all that stuff to feel like new again.
 
WHORERUNNER said:
I did mine lbj's 2 weeks ago with the napa premiums, so far so good, I'm satisfied with the build quality. Lifetime warranty adds icing to the cake. Hopefully Brian chimes in with his update.
Click to expand...

Whorerunner you were next on my list to ask. How is a guy not supposed to click on "She's so tight" regardless of it being the the 3rd gen section?

Maybe on some parts the OEM quality isn't just worth the expensive price.

trailmix said:
I just finished doing my lbj's, tie rods, steering rack bushings, wheel bearings and cv's and it feels like a new truck. The steering wheel doesnt bounce out of my hand or even move when hitting bumps and pot holes like it did before it the truck feels more stable overall. Oh and i used the tacoma ball joints and outer tie rods and they have way more meat on them then the 4runner parts and i was able to get the alignment perfect on it. So glad i did all of it, well worth the time and money spent. I used all toyota parts on it as well.
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Trailmix the taco conversion was my idea as well. I am very undertooled and haven't removed the inner tie rod boot to see if I got play up in there. I did rack bushings last week and that helped ever so slightly. My ball joints checked out to be in good condition by a local mechanic but I think I'll do them anyway with taco ones.

Now, you said you went with all toyota oem stuff, but gee if you don't mind me asking how much did you spend on the LBJs, OTRE, ITREs? Like you, I'd love you go OEM but if I remember right I figured up a bill of over $500 for all that OEM stuff.
 
brian2sun said:
My Napas seem to be holding up well after a year. My plan is to just replace them every 2-3 years under the warranty. My inner TREs were a lot cheaper at Autozone ($29.99 ea.) than Napa, so I went with those and they have a lifetime warranty too. I just replaced them a couple weeks ago so I can't comment on their quality yet, but they were a lot tighter than the old ones I took out. My outer TREs are Beck Arnley and I think and I got them off the internet somewhere. I did those maybe 1.5 years ago. They seem to be holding up fine too. Every one of those parts, regardless of who made them and where I bought them from says "555" on it (as do all the OEM parts I took out).

I also replaced my steering rack bushings I'd say about 1.5 years ago. And I did my steering rack guide last week and then I got it aligned. Now my steering finally feels nice and I have no steering wheel shake on the freeway and no bouncing/bad recovery after bumps at all anymore. I think each part I replaced helped the handling a little, but it took all that stuff to feel like new again.
Click to expand...

So how does the lifetime warranty work? As long as you keep your receipt of the item, and bring in the worn out item, they'll give you a brand new replacement for free? I've never known if they can screw you somehow on the lifetime warranty or if they'll actually give you a new one no questions asked.
 
madbomber08 said:
So how does the lifetime warranty work? As long as you keep your receipt of the item, and bring in the worn out item, they'll give you a brand new replacement for free? I've never known if they can screw you somehow on the lifetime warranty or if they'll actually give you a new one no questions asked.
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I always keep the boxes too, but I've returned lots of parts to Napa over the years and have never had any problems. If they refused to exchange a part, it' would be so rare, I'd just go to one of the other Napas in my area and I'm sure they would exchange it for me.
 
madbomber08 said:
Whorerunner you were next on my list to ask. How is a guy not supposed to click on "She's so tight" regardless of it being the the 3rd gen section?

Maybe on some parts the OEM quality isn't just worth the expensive price.



Trailmix the taco conversion was my idea as well. I am very undertooled and haven't removed the inner tie rod boot to see if I got play up in there. I did rack bushings last week and that helped ever so slightly. My ball joints checked out to be in good condition by a local mechanic but I think I'll do them anyway with taco ones.

Now, you said you went with all toyota oem stuff, but gee if you don't mind me asking how much did you spend on the LBJs, OTRE, ITREs? Like you, I'd love you go OEM but if I remember right I figured up a bill of over $500 for all that OEM stuff.
Click to expand...



I used beck/arnley for inner and outer tie rods, made in japan "555" . try amazon.
 
Now, you said you went with all toyota oem stuff, but gee if you don't mind me asking how much did you spend on the LBJs, OTRE, ITREs? Like you, I'd love you go OEM but if I remember right I figured up a bill of over $500 for all that OEM stuff.
Click to expand...

I got my Toyota OEM LBJ for $83.95 each at shoptrd.com. When you buy over $100, you get free shipping. Then I ordered the Outer Tie Rods from them for $50 each -again buying 2 gave me free shipping again. Total bill was $267.90 and all new genuine Toyota parts. Figure if I got over 130k out of the original parts, then I'll get another at least another 100k out of the new genuine parts being lifted 2".

Napa does sound like a great deal with lifetime warranty, but I'm not about to switch out my LBJ's every 2-3 years. It'd be awesome for those that offroad often and put lots of stress on their suspension.
 
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binhsterbinh said:
Napa does sound like a great deal with lifetime warranty, but I'm not about to switch out my LBJ's every 2-3 years. It'd be awesome for those that offroad often and put lots of stress on their suspension.
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That's my thoughts since I off road a lot. I can change out the LBJs in well under an hour too, so it's not a bad job since I work on my junk a lot anyways.
 
I dont do any offroading, and if brian2sun's are holding up with his abuse, I should see more than 2-3 years out of mine. Plus they really aren't all that bad to replace. I have 116k on my odo, I'll probably change them out at 150k, probably overkill but hey I might as well take advantage of the lifetime warranty.
 
Well my bill at toyota was 490 with the wheel bearings and seals for the bearings so i think it was probably about 300 or so but i figured the old toyota stuff lasted for 200k so why replace it with anything but toyota parts. Plus im a dealer so i dont pay tax and i get a little better price on parts.
 
trailmix said:
I just finished doing my lbj's, tie rods, steering rack bushings, wheel bearings and cv's and it feels like a new truck. The steering wheel doesnt bounce out of my hand or even move when hitting bumps and pot holes like it did before it the truck feels more stable overall. Oh and i used the tacoma ball joints and outer tie rods and they have way more meat on them then the 4runner parts and i was able to get the alignment perfect on it. So glad i did all of it, well worth the time and money spent. I used all toyota parts on it as well.
Click to expand...

What year Taco stuff did you go with? It's funny that all of these front suspension/steering conversations have come up recently since I'm getting ready to put new tires and wheels on the rig and need to tighten things up in the front end first. I know my inner tie rod end on the driver side has to be replaced and the sway bar end links also need replacing, so I'm leaning towards inner and outer tie rods, links, and lbj's since I have that steering wheel wobble when traveling on rough roads or hitting bumps in the road.
 
Agreed! I just replaced both of my lowers with 555 and what a difference! Plus I put Zerk fittings in mine so I can service them for many years to come!
 
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